Cape Town | Monday
THE wine and spirits agreement with South Africa’s key trade partner, the European Union (EU), will finally be signed in Paarl on Monday at a ceremony attended by senior officials from both sides.
The signing originally scheduled for December was delayed because of technical hitches.
The formal sealing of the accord caps nearly seven years of negotiation and haggling over the use of names such as sherry and port.
The agreement will enable South African exporters to send 43-million litres of wine a year duty free to the EU, a 10-million litre increase from the present quota.
The EU linked its free trade agreement signed with South Africa in October 1999 with the wine and spirits accord, promising development aid totalling 15-million euros.
The money would be provided once the wine and spirits agreement was in place.
Earlier this week, the European Commission’s Agricultural Council adopted the wine and spirit agreement, which will provisionally come into effect once signed in South Africa on Monday.
Negotiations on the possibility of a wine and spirits agreement began in 1994, but were held up by some EU members such as France, Italy, Spain and Portugal, who insisted that South Africa drop the use of certain names such as port, sherry, and grappa.
South Africa agreed to gradually phase out the use of these names over 12 years on its domestic market, and five years on its exports market.
A joint committee consisting of EU and SA representatives will monitor and manage the agreement.
The signing ceremony will be attended by, among others, the directors-general of the departments of agriculture and trade and industry and their EU agriculture counterpart Silvio Rodriguez. – Sapa